User:Evan/Major Assignment 5

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Evan Grabelsky Final Paper Due Date: 12/13/07 The News Media: The War on Journalism

How many Iraqi children died today due to the “War on Terrorism”? How real is the issue of global warming? Who is the Secretary of State? What’s going on in Darfur? You most likely know little about these topics and if you had to answer these questions- you might stumble over your words. However, you probably know the latest fashion trends or that Britney Spear’s cut her hair off and lost her children. If you don’t know by now, the news media is a carefully constructed industry. It’s sad but true, you tune into The O’Reilly Factor to see Bill O’Reilly telling his guests to shut up and listen to the crazy lunatics they put on the air. It’s sad but true, you watch Dateline NBC to watch a full hour of Britney Spears breaking down and swearing she’s a good mom. Now more than ever, the news media is competing for your attention. The structure of the news media has changed; it is a business place rather than a source for reliable information. It is a distraction from everyday life rather than a place to find out about international politics. It is pure entertainment to tickle your senses rather than a place to hear about news that will affect us all in the very near future. Bold colors, flashing “breaking news,” yellow, blue, red, green, purple, telling a guest on a show to shut up and asking security to escort him out of the building, crying in front of the television begging the paparazzi to leave her alone, hearing about Britney cutting her hair off and Rosie O’Donnell’s latest stint on The View. It’s all very exciting, it’s there to grab our attention. What is it really doing though? It’s a carefully constructed world that the news media has placed in front of us to distract us from what we really should be hearing from these channels. They want us to pay attention to their news channel and watch their news only. Competition sets in, who will have the most ratings and why? With all of the time being taken up by trying to stray our attention away from one news station to another, we as a society are becoming more ignorant and missing out on the important news that we should be hearing. You can find information about how real and urgent an issue of global warming is on alternative blogs and news media like Democracy Now yet the news channels we all watch everyday don’t even discuss it. This is a sad reality, when you really come to grasp what has happened to the news media. We all have to face the facts: we turn on the news, and what do we see? Do we really know how serious the issue of global warming is from CNN? Do we really know what secrets President Bush has been hiding about the war and his intentions from Fox News? No. Even the horrible genocide in Darfur hardly ever gets discussed on these news channels. People like Rupert Murdoch set out on paper the day’s topics according to him. What does he own? He is the man who rules the world. Myspace, Fox News, News Corp, New York Post, Herald Sun, The Wall Street Journal, TV Guide, etc. etc. What is so dangerous about this? It is the fact that people like Hitler were able to pull off something as horrific as the holocaust through propaganda and getting the attention of millions of people and following through on a narrow-minded agenda. What is stopping people like Rupert Murdoch from doing that today? That is what is so vital to understand, it is the same exact situation! They know that we watch hours and hours of reality shows, and our favorite sitcoms that make us laugh, make us cry, make us angry. So they follow suite. This has caused our news media, my news media, your news media, our source of information, a source of information for the entire world… to become more “entertainment-like” and less factual and less real. In an article written by Joe Nocera called “For Fox, It’s Always Happy Hour” he writes, “One minute Fox was doing a segment that included a $1 million diamond; the next it was giving tips on how to avoid foreclosure. It would home in on the stock market and then report on the death of a teenager in Virginia from a staph infection, reports that included several truly silly efforts to frame the tragedy as a business story.” He later describes Fox News’ “Happy Hour” show, “Fox was running its Happy Hour show, which is set in a bar. A co-host named Cody, a dude so hip he doesn't tuck his shirt in, was interviewing a random customer about his plans for Christmas spending. Expensive chocolates, was the man's reply.” The fact that these news stations are hand-picking their reporters by looks and age as well as by how they talk and interact with viewers and interviewees is proof that the news media is biased and not only biased but they after your valuable time and will do anything to get your attention. Of course, you can look at it as a corporation, in the bigger picture, they want the ratings- they need and thrive on the ratings. However, what is suffering because of this is a much bigger problem that cannot be overlooked. We don’t know what is going on in the world! We consistently overlook the real news for what I call “fake news.” Is it distracting us? Sure. But sooner or later we need to ask ourselves, do we care more about Britney cutting her hair off and what Tom Cruise thinks of depression or do we need to know how to protect the environment so we don’t leave our grandchildren fending for themselves and about the real facts, the real statistics, the real story about this “War on Terrorism.” When will “We Report. You Decide” become not enough? When you think of Britney Spears you might not immediately think of Bill O’Reilly. However, the two actually have a lot in common. Britney Spears is often the center of attention when it comes to the entertainment world. She is always being featured in magazines and news stories about losing her baby, cutting off all her hair or going into rehab yet again. She is even featured as “breaking news” on these major news stations like Fox News. Perhaps her most famous appearance on a major news media channel was her interview with Matt Lauer on Dateline NBC. Bill O’Reilly is a star of his own kind; he is the “main character” on the Fox News Channel where he hosts a show called The O’Reilly Factor. He purposely does outlandish things during airtime, more times than not- to anger liberals and get a rise out of people. It has become more and more ridiculous as time passes, as he says and does things that you would not expect to hear a TV show host to say, even for Fox News’ typically out-there reporting. On February 4th, 2003 a man named Jeremy Glick, whose father died on September 11th, made an appearance on The O’Reilly Factor. It is said to be one of the most outrageous and insulting interviews people have ever seen on Fox. O’Reilly was interested in having Jeremy on his show because he could not understand why he was not so adamant as he was about hating Afghani’s and going to war even though “these people” had killed his father. Although you cannot get the full effect of the horror and disbelief of this interview without watching it fully, here is an excerpt from the transcript:

GLICK: Well, you're not representing me. You're not representing me. O'REILLY: And I'd never represent you. You know why? GLICK: Why? O'REILLY: Because you have a warped view of this world and a warped view of this country. GLICK: Well, explain that. Let me give you an example of a parallel... O'REILLY: No, I'm not going to debate this with you, all right. GLICK: Well, let me give you an example of parallel experience. On September 14... O'REILLY: No, no. Here's -- here's the... GLICK: On September 14... O'REILLY: Here's the record. GLICK: OK. O'REILLY: All right. You didn't support the action against Afghanistan to remove the Taliban. You were against it, OK. GLICK: Why would I want to brutalize and further punish the people in Afghanistan... O'REILLY: Who killed your father! GLICK: The people in Afghanistan... O'REILLY: Who killed your father. GLICK: ... didn't kill my father. O'REILLY: Sure they did. The al Qaeda people were trained there. GLICK: The al Qaeda people? What about the Afghan people? O'REILLY: See, I'm more angry about it than you are! GLICK: So what about George Bush? O'REILLY: What about George Bush? He had nothing to do with it. GLICK: The director -- senior as director of the CIA. O'REILLY: He had nothing to do with it. GLICK: So the people that trained a hundred thousand Mujahadeen who were... O'REILLY: Man, I hope your mom isn't watching this. GLICK: Well, I hope she is. O'REILLY: I hope your mother is not watching this because you -- that's it. I'm not going to say anymore. GLICK: OK. O'REILLY: In respect for your father... GLICK: On September 14, do you want to know what I'm doing? O'REILLY: Shut up. Shut up. GLICK: Oh, please don't tell me to shut up. O'REILLY: As respect -- as respect -- in respect for your father, who was a Port Authority worker, a fine American, who got killed unnecessarily by barbarians... GLICK: By radical extremists who were trained by this government... O'REILLY: Out of respect for him... GLICK: ... not the people of America. O'REILLY: ... I'm not going to... GLICK: ... The people of the ruling class, the small minority. O'REILLY: Cut his mic. I'm not going to dress you down anymore, out of respect for your father. We will be back in a moment with more of THE FACTOR. GLICK: That means we're done? O'REILLY: We're done.

He later apologizes to his viewers saying he would never have invited him on the show if he knew he was going to act like that. He even goes so far to say that his family should be embarrassed by him. What is wrong with this? Time after time we see people being ridiculed on Fox News for having views against those of Rupert Murdoch and the people he puts on the air. Basically, if you don’t share those conservative views, you get put down, told to shut up, and get your mic cut so that only Bill O’Reilly’s views get heard and you are degraded to look like a fool. This is not what we except to see on the news media. Fair and balanced? Absolutely not. However, congratulations- you just got a full half hour of entertainment for the night. What’s worse? It has probably made you so angry you want to throw a remote at Bill O’Reilly’s head. Yet, they’ve won. They’ve distracted you. They’ve got their ratings. They know what they are doing, and they are doing it well. We are further and further being pushed with our faces smashed against this glass of entertainment news and we still don’t know how many Iraqi civilians are dying or why we are in a war where we cannot find those weapons of mass destruction. On June 15th, 2006 we saw Britney Spears, “Breaking News”, tears coming from our television screens begging us to believe “I’m a good mom.” This interview was watched by millions and millions of people around the world because we all found it so interesting. We just had to know what Britney Spears said was the reason for her almost dropping her baby in New York City just like we had to watch Bill O’Reilly yell at some poor helpless boy who lost his father on 9/11. Jake Halpern, an author very familiar with fame and how it all plays out in the news media was scheduled to talk about his new book on CNN when he found out he was being bumped. Here’s what he states in his article “Britney Spears, “Breaking News,” [I]t was certainly a delightful irony when, upon my arrival, I was told that my segment had been canceled due to breaking news. “Oh,” I said, “What happened?” The technician replied, “Didn’t you hear, Britney Spears just lost custody of her kids?” He provides hard facts to prove that news stations give more time to celebrities than issues of global warming or the absolutely non-existent issue in the news media, of genocide in Darfur. Halpern goes on to lay out some scary and disheartening statistics: “In 2004, network news gave five times more coverage to Martha Stewart than Darfur; on the day I was bumped, CNN’s Britney to Iraq coverage ratio was three to one.” Yes, what the United Nations describes as “the world’s largest humanitarian crisis” is not getting airtime, but we all know that Ms. Spears has lost her children and she’s a mess. So we can all sleep soundly tonight. Throughout her interview with Matt Lauer she gets more and more tear eyed as he hits her with harder and harder questions. You really need to separate yourself from watching this interview in order to realize how absolutely ludicrous it is to watch such a thing on a news station like NBC. It makes it extremely evident that it was all done for ratings. Once again, you need to watch the full interview to get the total feel of what went on. However, here is an excerpt from the transcript: Lauer: Can you imagine ever living anywhere else? Could you pick up from here and go to small town America again? Spears: Maybe ... I could go to Atlanta. I've been to Atlanta. I like suburbia-type area ... I love where I live right now. It's really beautiful and stuff like that, but if I have to move in five years, I could do it. Lauer: You could recreate this type of setting, this type of a sanctuary in another city, that would be fine with you. Spears: Yeah ... mmm hmm.

Spears: That driving incident was from, like five minutes away, and Starbucks is like — like, right there. I can't go anywhere without someone judging me. You know. I did it with my dad. I'd sit on his lap and I'd drive. We're country. That's what ... you know what I mean? It's not ... Lauer: But what happened, though, is that it crossed from a paparazzi incident to the next day it's in the newspapers and you've got all these legitimate people weighing in, saying, "You know what? That's dangerous." And she put her child at risk. You saw the questions that were being asked, "Is Britney a bad mom?" It's not like, "Did Britney record a bad song? Is Britney wearing a bad outfit? Is Britney in a bad marriage?" "Is Britney a bad mom?" I mean ... Spears: That's America for you. [Laughter.] Lauer: Yeah, but... Spears: Yeah. Lauer: As a mother, that has to hit pretty close to home. Spears: Yeah, it makes you really strong. Lauer: Make you weep? Spears: Oh, I've wept. Yeah, I've definitely wept just with the world, you know how judgmental they are. But I know what kinda mom I am.

At this point, the camera closes in on Ms. Spear’s as she starts crying. There is silence. It’s like it was scripted right from some desk over at Dateline. Moreover, it’s like a show from a season of a soap opera or a drama on primetime television. She goes on to give this statement as reasoning for why she almost dropped her baby in NYC, “Actually, I didn't trip on anything. It was a New York street, and just cobblestones. And I was walking and I don't think we were prepared with security, cause I've never had that much paparazzi ever on me in New York. So I think it was a mixture of so many paparazzi and how the road was all messed up, me just trying to get in the car." If this isn’t “entertainment news” then I don’t know what is? That moment we see her close up, and tears rolling down her face is exactly like the moment we see Bill O’Reilly’s close up pointing his finger at Jeremy Glick and telling him to shut up and get out of the studio. Alas, we have spent almost the whole night watching news about people who, in context to today’s society and world issues are largely unimportant. Another night we know nothing about global warming or people dying in Darfur. Another night we know nothing about little Iraqi children dying at the hand’s of our bombs and weapons. Another night we become more ignorant. Another night we slowly become desensitized to war and bloodshed. Another night we accept the actions of our leader because we are told to. Another night where we have become distracted without even realizing it. Another night… …When will another night be too late? What is so vital to understand is that we all know that the news media is constructed and is becoming more of entertainment news than anything else. What is even more important is that we are heading down a dangerous path in which if someone like Rupert Murdoch wants to get a point across- he has the ability to through almost every outlet of media, the music industry, the newspaper, the radio, a film… with one narrow viewpoint, and enough money to own the world, what is stopping him? What is stopping us from believing in what we are watching? Eventually, we are all going to become as brainwashed as the people in Germany were under the rule of Adolf Hitler. It’s not going to stop unless we all try and make a difference and not allow ourselves to get caught up in the next Britney Spear’s interview on Dateline NBC. It is only going to stop unless we stop getting caught up in the next outlandish Bill O’Reilly interview. Like everything in the world, it is our decision to stop watching, so when are we going to shut off Bill O’Reilly’s microphone….?

Bibliography The News Media: The War on Journalism

Halpern, Jake. (10-4-2007). Date Retrived: 12/13/06. Britney Spears, ‘Breaking News’. The Wall Street Journal, ppA18. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=1353504771&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1194762429&clientId=2724

Nocera, Joe. (2007, October 20th). For Fox, It’s Always Happy Hour. The New York Times, pB1-B8, 2p. Date Retrieved: 12/13/07 http://find.galegroup.com/itx/retrieve.do?contentSet=IACDocuments&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2CUS%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28JN%2CNone%2C16%29%22New+York+Times%22%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28DA%2CNone%2C8%2920071020%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28VO%2CNone%2C3%29157%24&sgHitCountType=None&inPS=true&sort=DateDescend&searchType=PublicationSearchForm&tabID=T004&prodId=AONE&searchId=R1&currentPosition=5&userGroupName=mlin_w_umassamh&docId=A170062168&docType=IAC

Websites used (transcripts, etc.) http://www.oreilly-sucks.com/transcripts/oreillyglick.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Glick_(author) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13266573/ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13329706/

--Evan 06:52, 13 December 2007 (EST)